Tyner v. The People's Gas Co.

• Decision Date: 30 April 1892
• Docket Number: 15,518
• Citation: 31 N.E. 61,131 Ind. 408
• Parties: Tyner v. The People's Gas Company et al
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

31 N.E. 61

131 Ind. 408

Tyner v. The People's Gas Company et al

No. 15,518

Supreme Court of Indiana

April 30, 1892

From the Hancock Circuit Court.

Judgment reversed, with directions to overrule the demurrer to the first paragraph of the complaint.

D. S Gooding, for appellant.

J. A New, C. G. Offutt and R. A. Black, for appellees.

OPINION

Coffey, J.

The complaint in this case consisted of three paragraphs. The appellant withdrew the second paragraph and the court sustained a demurrer to the first and third. The appellant refusing to amend the appellees had judgment.

The assignment of error calls in question the ruling of the court in sustaining the demurrer to the first and third paragraphs of the complaint.

The first paragraph alleges, in brief, that the appellant and the appellees are the owners of adjoining city lots in the city of Greenfield, Indiana, situate near the center of the city that the family residence of the appellant, in which he and his family reside, is located on the lots so owned by him; that the appellees, regardless of the rights of the appellant, and of the safety, peace, comfort and lives of himself and family, without his consent, and over his objection, have dug and constructed a natural gas well to the depth of about one thousand feet, two hundred feet distant from appellant's said residence, and within forty-three feet of the appellant's lots; that appellees threaten and are about to "shoot" said well and will do so unless restrained therefrom; that for this purpose they have unlawfully brought into the city of Greenfield a large quantity of nitro-glycerine or other nitro-explosive compound, and have permitted the same to remain within two hundred feet of appellant's said residence for three hours at a time, in the midst of and surrounded by a large number of people; that they threaten to "shoot" said well with their said nitro glycerine, and will do so unless restrained and enjoined therefrom; that nitro-glycerine is highly explosive and is very dangerous to life and property, and is liable to explode under any and all circumstances; that an explosion of sixty or one hundred quarts thereof at any given place on the surface of the earth could and probably would destroy life and property anywhere within five hundred yards of such explosion; that the handling or storing thereof in or about the appellees' gas well will endanger the lives of the appellant and his family as well as his property, and that the explosion thereof within the well will greatly injure the property of the appellant, both above and below the surface of the earth, and endanger the life of himself and family.

The third paragraph alleges, substantially, that under the land of the appellant, described in the first paragraph of the complaint, at a depth of nine hundred or one thousand feet are many valuable stones and rocks, among others, the rock known as "Trenton rock," containing great quantities of natural gas of the value of $ 4,000; that said natural gas, prior to August, 1889, was imbedded, contained, held and securely kept in said "Trenton rock;" that on the 19th day of August, 1889, the appellants unlawfully and maliciously dug and constructed a natural gas well to the depth of one-thousand feet within twenty-five feet of appellant's lots, and on the day of September, 1889, unlawfully and maliciously intending to injure and damage the appellant and his property, unlawfully, wantonly and maliciously performed the act of "shooting" their gas well to the great damage of the appellant; that the appellees at the time they sunk their well, intended, by means thereof, to draw and cause to flow large quantities of natural gas from appellant's said "Trenton rock" into their well, and that large quantities of said gas did flow into their said...